Africanized Bees - ABJ News Article

[Travis]

In the latest ABJ there was an article about partially africanized bees being found in TN, here is a link to the TN.gov article ( http://news.tn.gov/node/8656 ). In this article it states that they have been found in TX, MS, GA, FL, and now TN. So as and AL beekeeper I'm wondering how did they fly all around the state and never manage to set up shop here in AL. Did they fly down the panhandle of FL and decide to go north once they reached GA.

[robherc]

IDK, but I wouldn't worry about 'em too much. They're pretty much endemic here in coastal TX, but they defo. aren't all they're cracked-up to be. Yes, you pretty much HAVE to wear some protection when you're working them, and yes, some of them are a little too hot to really handle 'em well, but nothing truly scary. Out of my five hives, all of native bees, and most likely having quite a bit of AHB DNA in them, only 1 is truly a pain to work, the other 4 are fine to work in a veil, T-shirt, and shorts most days. All in all, I just consider AHB to be a different variety of bee, with fairly good VSH attributes & they seem to do fairly well at keeping SHB quarantined too...the hottest ones will get new queens, but the rest I'm happy with "as they come"

[sqkcrk]

It is believed that FL got theirs from ships traveling across the Gulf carrying AHB swarms. They probably got to TN transported on a semi. That's how some have been found to exist in NY.

Keep in mind that these probably aren't fully Africanized Honeybees, but merely a percentage Africanized.

[Travis]

Robherc, that's pretty cool that all you really need to work with them is a veil, they sure do talk them up to being really rough.

sqkcrk, I think the article said something about them only being 17%, I just thought it weird they are found in every surrounding state and none in AL, kinda made me think that maybe the governmental part doesn't test as much as the other states or maybe get involved like other stated. But maybe if that's so it's a good thing to a degree.

[sqkcrk]

AL is spending its' money elsewhere I suspect. Also, doesn't AL ban the importation of honeybees? Or is it just bees on comb?

[Travis]

From what I have read only pkg can be moved into the state, meaning without comb. Maybe this has helped in someway. Not sure how other than entire set up colonies aren't coming into the state.

[psisk]

We dont officially have them past mid state. So they wouldnt be crossing over into Al. yet. Although I have a hive that I suspect has a little AHB in them. They came from a migratory beek from down south and can be mean as sin. I have made several splits from them and the resulting hives havent been mean at all so maybe the queen mated with AHB drones. I will definitely requeen them with an Italian when the time comes.

psisk

[squarepeg]

i bought a nuc from a local supplier that was noticably more aggressive than any of the other bees i have worked so far. dozens of them clinging and stinging all over my hands, arms, and legs. most of the stings i took were in the wrists/ankles where they got between the elastic and the gloves/shoes. a lot of them followed me 200 feet from the hive after i closed it up. this hive was being kept at a friend's place, and he had taken a sting while working in his garden. i ended up killing the queen, doing a 50/50 split and requeening. interestingly, they calmed down once the new queens were introduced, but before there was time for the new genetics to emerge. makes me wonder if the queen's phermones played a role.

[Sid from Texas]

Last seaon one of my hives superceded. Here in S Texas it was a grewat hive, my very best in building comb, and surviving the severe drought. BUTTTTT, they were hot. They would get me through my bee suit, I began to wear a fleece under my suit, even in hot weather. I was going to requeen but one of my donkeys knocked the hive over, and that was that.

My point is they were real survivors, even though they must have had AHB genetics from the drone. I will tolerate the hives if they are survivors. Read Michael Bush'es web site about his 4 keys to successful beekeping

[Travis]

Sid from Texas, where do I find the section about the four keys to successful beekeeping, I looked all over his website, guess I'm over looking it.

[bevy's honeybees]

I have a couple hives that my inspector during my yearly inspection the other day has talked me into requeening. They were "nervous" and "runny on the frames" and louder than normal. One was a cut out from last year and one was a swarm catch this year. And one that requeened itself. He said they have africanized traits. That didn't suprise me, but as I still can manage them and I like what they're doing I wasn't going to requeen. He convinced me to requeen because what if someone or animal was seriously hurt by my bees? That's all it took.

I wondered, when I go to requeen, if I bring a comb scratcher and open up all the capped drone cells if that will lessen the passing of ahb traits to queens they would have mated with? It makes sense to me but wanted to run it past you all. One hive in particular was pretty strong ahb. He said with this one, I might want to split it along with requeening, and to coat with honey the exterior wooden box and some of the screen and the candy plug before installing. AHB have a tendency to ball and kill the queen. The splitting and honey coating will help prevent that from happening. I'm also going to overnite the queens and see about doing a pick up at the post office. I had 3 queens die last year before I got them to hive--one within hrs, to no more than 24 hrs of my receiving them.

That was my only problem with my hives. Everything else was good--no disease and very low mite count. I was thrilled about that.

At the Bee college in Northern Fla I took classes on ahb and they said the ahb problem is in southern Florida, south of interstate 15. They came in through the harbors, swarms that got onto shipping boat.

[Scrapfe]

A few years ago a colony of AHB turned up in South Carolina, hiding or rideing in the engine cowling of a two engine prop plane. I would like to know how the ground crew 'ex-planed' that pre-flight inspection to the pilot.

A year or two ago I saw one of those cute little maps with the counties reporting killer bee colonies lit up in living color. Either Mobile, or Baldwin counties in Alabama were brightly lit, denoting at least on AHB colony. Then the lights faded out. What gives?

[robherc]

Scrapfe, my guess is that they likely formed their cluster after the inspection....I've seen 'em form in a few minutes, so it's a pretty plausible explanation. I don't really see any mechanics, or even the pilot, for that matter, simply "not noticing" a few thousand bees flying around, lol

[Sid from Texas]

look at michal's web site for the "four simple steps". I am on my Ipad and cannot figure out how to highlight and copy the link.

[Sid from Texas]

I'll try typing it in:

www.bushfarms.com/beesfoursimplesteps.htm

[Captainfester]

It is believed that FL got theirs from ships traveling across the Gulf carrying AHB swarms.

Possible but not probable. There is a better chance that someone importaed them than they came across on a ship. Although there are several insects that they do fumigate vsls for just for that reason. Most of Asain origin.

[beeG]

IDK, but I wouldn't worry about 'em too much. They're pretty much endemic here in coastal TX, but they defo. aren't all they're cracked-up to be. Yes, you pretty much HAVE to wear some protection when you're working them, and yes, some of them are a little too hot to really handle 'em well, but nothing truly scary. Out of my five hives, all of native bees, and most likely having quite a bit of AHB DNA in them


All in all, I just consider AHB to be a different variety of bee, with fairly good VSH attributes & they seem to do fairly well at keeping SHB quarantined too...the hottest ones will get new queens, but the rest I'm happy with "as they come"

And if you breed queens for resale to states that do not have AHB genetics, then isnt it possible this can be a form of spreading AHB?

[sqkcrk]

Possible but not probable. There is a better chance that someone importaed them than they came across on a ship. Although there are several insects that they do fumigate vsls for just for that reason. Most of Asain origin.

That seems to be the way bees got to harbor areas in other States like North Carolina.

[AstroBee]

Possible but not probable.

Here's a direct quote from: Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) of African Origin Exist in Non-Africanized Areas of the Southern United States: Evidence from Mitochondrial DNA, Entomological Society of America.

"Introductions of Africanized honey bees have occurred at major ocean ports at least in California (Berenbaum 1995) and Florida (Bronson 2005) before Africanization."

So perhaps it's more probable that one expects.

[Captainfester]

considering the fumigation that occurs on most vsls still find is less than likely it wasnt done on purpose. would think that if by "accident" they came via a container.

Here's a direct quote from: Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) of African Origin Exist in Non-Africanized Areas of the Southern United States: Evidence from Mitochondrial DNA, Entomological Society of America.

"Introductions of Africanized honey bees have occurred at major ocean ports at least in California (Berenbaum 1995) and Florida (Bronson 2005) before Africanization."

So perhaps it's more probable that one expects.